Name and Location
Grootegeluk Medupi expansion project (GMEP), Limpopo, South Africa.

Client
Exxaro Resources.

Project Description
The project entails a brownfield expansion of Exxaro's Grootegeluk mine. Coal will be mined from the existing opencast pit at an accelerated rate, with the mine's current production increasing from 19-million sales tonnes a year to 34-million sales tonnes a year.

The brownfield expansion requires new developments in mining processes, screening, beneficiation and the stockyard. The project will use new technology to deliver high-quality product. These will include semimobile crushers and tippers, dry screening of the material smaller than 6 mm, large-coal dense-medium separator (DMS), or larcodem units, and large cyclones.

The expansion will be mined with semimobile in-pit tip-and-crusher units supplied by the truck and loading operations. The tipping bins and crushers will be used as mobile units in the pit and will move as the mine moves forward.

Two new DMS facilities, the Grootegeluk 7 and Grootegeluk 8 beneficiation plants, which will be constructed at the mine, will handle the coal beneficiation process.

The run-of-mine (RoM) coal will be screened through the coarse-coal screens to remove material smaller than 40 mm. Material smaller than 6 mm will be screened out dry for direct mixing into the final product, which eliminates the need for slimes dams.

Material bigger than 40 mm and smaller than 100 mm will be beneficiated in the larcodems, while material smaller than 40 mm will be beneficiated in the large cyclones.

The fines in the process water will be recovered in the thickener dams and dried in the filter presses to be mixed into the final product. When water gets into contact with the coal, it will not be allowed into the environment. Polluted water will be kept in the loop circulation process for reuse.

The stockyard will accommodate about 430 000 t of coal, which will be stacked and reclaimed with two stackers and one reclaimer respectively. The RoM stockpiles will be introduced between the mine, the plant and the discard stackers to support continuous production.

About 740 housing units are being built to cater for the project team and the expanded workforce.

The expansion is part of the 40-year coal supply agreement, at an average of 14.6-million tonnes a year, that Exxaro secured with Eskom to supply the utility's new Medupi power station, which is under construction near Lephalale, in Limpopo.

Value
It is expected that the total project expenditure will be about R10.2-billion. The revised budget has increased by R700-million, owing to a combination of factors, including additional escalations, labour unrest, steel shortages and additional scope that has been added to the project.

Duration
The coal supply ramp-up will commence during the first half of 2013 and is expected to continue until the second half of 2016.

Latest Developments
Construction on the GMEP to supply Eskom’s Medupi power station with 14.6-million tonnes a year of coal is now 97% complete.

The coal supply ramp-up began in 2013, with 1.3-million tonnes produced and 0.9-million tonnes dispatched to Matimba power station after industrial action affected the mine’s production in the first quarter of 2013. Further ramp-up and performance testing will be done in the first half of 2014 as per the revised contractual arrangement.

GMEP outstanding mining equipment that was delayed on the back of the revised ramp-up schedule agreed between Exxaro and Eskom is provided for in Phase 3. Total project expenditure to date is R9.3-billion with total capital expenditure forecast at R10.2 billion, including GMEP’s portion of the houses and backfill project.

The backfill project has progressed well, with Phase 1 completed in 2013. It is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2014. Phase 2 is planned to be completed by the end of 2017.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
LSL Consulting, SSG Consulting and Engineering & Projects Company, or E+PC (design); Arup (civils); Melco (conveyor equipment supplier); Consolidated Power Projects (overhead power lines and transformers); M Projects (building upfront infrastructure); Concor Holdings (bulk earthworks plant area, blending and load out); PRG Electrical Engineering & Services (construction power); MMD Mineral Sizing (Africa) (in-pit crushing system); Basil Read (in-plant workshop); Makeshift (relocation of piping and civil services); FLSmidth (stackers and reclaimers); Stefanutti Stocks Civils (RoM area civil); Aveng Engineering & Projects Company (coal-washing plant); Wade Walker (electrical and instrumentation work); SMEI Projects (assisting SCMEI Projects − plant area civils, thickeners civils, plant area structural, mechanical, platework and piping [SMPP], mining area bulk earthworks, buildings administration, blending and load-out civil, 11 kV distribution, low-voltage and instrumentation plant area, blending and load-out SMPP, filter plant SMPP and RoM area SMPP); Tubular (mine coal preparation plant conveyors) and Amrec (planning and scheduling).

On Budget and on Time?
The construction of the GMEP continues to progress as planned and within budget.

Contact Details for Project Information
Arup, tel +27 11 218 7600 or email johannesburg@arup.com.
Basil Read, tel +27 11 418 6300 or fax +27 11 418 6333.
Conco, tel +27 11 805 4281, fax +27 11 805 1132 or email conco@conco.co.za.
Concor Mining, tel +27 11 495 2222, fax +27 11 495 2488 or email info.mining@concor.co.za.
E+PC, tel +27 10 205 1000 or fax +27 87 807 0143.
Exxaro Resources manager external stakeholder relations Hilton Atkinson, tel +27 12 307 4843 or email hilton.atkinson@exxaro.com; or GM of GMEP Joe Meyer, email joe.meyer@exxaro.com.
FLSmidth head of investor relations and corporate communications Pernille Andersen, tel +45 36 18 1887, fax +45 36 16 1922 or email pefa@flsmidth.com.
LSL Consulting, tel +27 11 789 8138.
M Projects, tel +27 31 902 9755, fax +27 31 902 2903 or email mprojects@cybertrade.co.za.
MMD Mineral Sizing (Africa), tel +27 11 608 4801, fax +27 11 608 4848 or email sizers@mmdafrica.co.za.
PRG Electrical Engineering & Services, tel +27 16 889 3109.
SMEI Projects, tel +27 11 914 4101, fax +27 11 914 4108 or email smei@smei.co.za.
SSG Consulting CEO Steven Golding, tel +27 12 345 6779, fax +27 86 697 1924 or email steven.golding@ssgconsulting.co.za.
Stefanutti Stocks Civils, tel +27 11 571 4300, fax +27 11 393 2366 or email civils@stefstocks.com.